Generally, a mobile robot serves to clean a certain area such as a house and an office by sucking dust or foreign materials while moving.
The mobile robot comprises units of a general vacuum cleaner for sucking dust or foreign materials, a moving unit including right and left motors for moving the mobile robot, a detecting sensor for detecting various obstacles inside an area to be cleaned, and a controller for performing a cleaning process by controlling the moving unit and the detecting sensor.
The conventional mobile robot is provided with an obstacle detecting sensor for detecting obstacles positioned at a front side corresponding to a moving path. The mobile robot recognizes obstacles positioned at a front side through the obstacle detecting sensor, and then moves by avoiding the detected obstacles.
The conventional mobile robot is also provided with a wall surface detecting sensor. When the mobile robot moves or performs a cleaning process along a wall surface, the wall surface detecting sensor allows the mobile robot to perform a cleaning process without colliding with the wall surface.
However, the conventional mobile robot has a limitation in ranges and angles to detect signals reflected by obstacles, thereby not recognizing obstacles having a large reflection angle such as a rectangular pillar.
Furthermore, the conventional mobile robot has to be additionally provided with a wall surface detecting sensor as well as an obstacle detecting sensor. This causes the mobile robot to have a complicated detecting sensor system, which increases fabrication costs.